Ruth Wilson Gilmore

A renowned activist and public scholar known for her work on prison abolition, Ruth Wilson Gilmore is professor of earth & environmental sciences and American studies, as well as director of the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. In addition to her work on abolition, Professor Gilmore writes and lectures extensively on a range of subjects, including racial capitalism, organized violence, changing state structure, the aesthetics and politics of seeing, and labor and social movements. She authored the award-winning book Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California and spearheaded the development of the field of carceral geography. Her multiple honors include the American Studies Association Angela Y. Davis Award for Public Scholarship (2012); the Association of American Geographers' Harold Rose Award for Anti-Racist Research and Practice (2014); the SUNY-Purchase College Eugene V. Grant Distinguished Scholar Prize for Social and Environmental Justice (2015-16); and the American Studies Association Richard A. Yarborough Mentorship Award (2017). In addition to her scholarly work, Professor Gilmore co-founded several grassroots organizations, including the California Prison Moratorium Project, Critical Resistance, and the Central California Environmental Justice Network. She holds a Ph.D. in economic geography and social theory from Rutgers University.